Recommended Reading for January 13th

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“Your brain is confused,” she said. As if this were comforting. “You’re used to legs that require you to lock into a position. Get it?”

I did not get it. For five years I had walked on my old hinged leg. I had been in my longest relationship with that leg and lived in three different states. I don’t want to wax sentimental here and say it felt like dying, but it kind of did feel like dying. Goodbye hinge, goodbye foot. You’re done. You’re through.

Arguments are under way today in the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee, Fla., in the case of Samantha Burton, who was confined to her bed by a judge earlier this year because she was at risk for a miscarriage.

Burton was in her 25th week of pregnancy in March 2009 when she started showing signs of miscarrying. Her doctor advised her to go on bed rest, possibly for as long as 15 weeks, but she told him that she had two toddlers to care for and a job to keep. She planned on getting a second opinion, but the doctor alerted the state, which then asked the Circuit Court of Leon County to step in.

She was ordered to stay in bed at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and to undergo “any and all medical treatments” her doctor, acting in the interests of the fetus, decided were necessary. Burton asked to switch hospitals and the request was denied by the court, which said “such a change is not in the child’s best interest at this time.”

A 41-year-old Flint woman was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison today in connection with her no-contest plea to charges of starving her 9-year-old quadriplegic niece to death, then hiding the girl’s body in a rented storage unit for weeks. […> Officials said Thomas starved Shylae, then hid her body so she could continue collecting more than $3,000 a month in welfare money that she received to care for the girl, who was physically and mentally challenged and unable to feed herself.

Calgary resident Choi Ho, whose 13-year-old son has autism, says it took a long time to get the help her son needs, like physiotherapy, because she didn’t know English well enough to discover what was available.

5 thoughts on “Recommended Reading for January 13th”

When did doctors forget that they are the woman’s doctor until that fetus comes out of the woman’s body? Did I miss something? There is that divide for a reason. IIRC, when I was pregnant, there was an OB/GYN to take care of me, and when The Kid came out they needed a Pediatrician to take care of her.

*grumbles* Confining a pregnant woman against her will. It is like an anti-choice dream come true.

That some people think pregnant women have essentially no rights because of the fetus is terrifying. This idea also promotes a disturbing kind of absolute devotion to the medical establishment. Urghh.
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Diagnostic Criteria, Stereotypes, and Invisibility =-.

That’s horrifying. That pregnant woman was, IMO, given a choice between not getting bed rest and getting done for being unable to take care of her toddlers. And then her foetus was ruled to be more important than her living children and her preference for ensuring they were cared for properly.